COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) - Officials are still investigating the cause of a house fire that broke out on 42nd St. near Oates Ave. in Columbus, Thursday afternoon, but residents are blaming a newly installed water heater.

Six adults and two young children were inside watching television when the room began filling with smoke. After the children were rescued and everyone made it outside safely, a man who walks with a cane went back in the burning house to retrieve something he left behind.

"I told them to get the kids out and everything, and me myself, being an alcoholic, I was trying to get my beer out," said Walter Serpit, "I went back into the house like a dummy and the door shut on me because this back draft was about to kill me."

Serpit managed to save several cans of beer and he escaped the home without getting burned.

The Red Cross arrived shortly after firefighters extinguished the flames and they are helping the family get back on their feet. One Red Cross volunteer at the scene said they were able to respond quickly because a neighbor alerted them to the situation.

I lived in Traben-Trarbach for 4 years. The two major beers in that area were Bitburger and Konigsbacher. I would drive to Koblenz at least one Sunday a month to enjoy lunch at the Konigsbacher brewery restaurant. It had a great view of the Rhine, and it served bock beer year round.

Unfortunately, Konigsbacher is not exported to the US. Not known to many folks outside Texas is the strong German influence in South TX and the Hill Country. That has led, in part, to the great brews produced by Shiner and Rahr (Fort Worth), to name just two.

34
posted on 10/25/2013 12:54:50 PM PDT
by Night Hides Not
(The Tea Party was the earthquake, and Chick Fil A the tsunami...100's of aftershocks to come.)

Big deal so he rescued a couple beers. When my older brother and I were about 8 and 10 years old, our mother took us to visit a friend who lived in Riverside(southern CA). At that age we didn't know much about beer or drinking(mom didn't drink)but we did understand that a guy whose garage was filled top to bottom with cases of beer, all the same brand judging by the color of the boxes, had a serious problem. There was no room in that garage for anything except his beer and when he was home he always had a can of it in his hand.

If his house would have caught on fire he didn't stand a chance of getting all the beer to safety.

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